Yeah, I started in 2008 and didn’t mind being behind others in SP’s as well… My character has constantly been training skills since it was first created, has never used Skill Extractors / Injectors at all and currently has a lot of skill points… In fact I still don’t mind being behind others in SP’s…
Course that doesn’t mean I’m going to bypass taking advantage of game packs with SP’s… Quite the contrary, I usually get those as well… Especially if they include Omega time and apparel items… I also do the Daily Goals and Event Log-in SP’s. Also did CCP’s ‘Skill Point Catch Up’ offer and the Recruitment SP’s too…
Basically I don’t mind CCP giving away free SP’s to everybody…
Even though I take advantage of the game packs, I definitely don’t like CCP selling SP’s and I totally despise the way CCP implemented Skill Extractors / Injectors, especially with their reduced amount for high skill point characters… When that idea was first presented, it was suppose to be a way for players to reassign SP’s on their characters, moving points from one skill group to another skill group, not to extract SP’s and sell them on the market for ISK so somebody can turn a 3 day old character into the highest skill point character in the game (Iron Bank)…
Anyway, since CCP has changed their stance on selling SP’s (I remember when they said they would never sell SP’s), I’ll take advantage of those offers whenever they’re worthwhile and available…
If someone told you that, they are lying to you. It is utterly easy to catch up to the skill points of older players. I do not talk about Skill Injectors or other SP injection schemes, even. There are simply only 5 skill levels for all the skills. You catch up to these old players 1 skill at a time. They cannot get more SP than Amarr Frigate V, Minmatar Cruiser V or Gallente Carrier V. It is simply not true that you cannot catch up to the SP levels of older players.
What you may have a harder time catching up to is their wealth of knowledge and experience. But that is true for any game, regardless whether it’s 1 year or 30 years old. But like all other games, EVE offers a plethora of information sources and learning materials to close this gap as well if you only put a bit of effort into it.
Not being able to catch up is a lie, has always been a lie and will always be a lie.
When, as a veteran player - and let’s make life very easy and put it randomly at 60-80M SP acquired via training, 3 to 4 years - you start up a new character, the difference in progress of efficiency with a new character from a new omega player (again to make the comparison fair) is very telling.
The difference lies in the choices you learned to make as a veteran, choices made by observing the possibilities the game offers. You know how it works, you experienced that discovery. And that learning process takes a long time. In my opinion it’s not so much the SP difference (that merely determines what tools you can use for your purposes, and the scope of possible purposes). It is no different from real life, where every young adult is confronted with a vast competition of more mature and experienced adults engaged in the same occupation
This game is complex and deep enough to allow the parallel I just made. EvE is also complex and deep enough to not have a single experience curve, or a single path, as each player creates his/her own. In other words, the game allows anyone to carve his/her own path in an individual way and still be highly successful.
The game of chess would have died a long time ago if only experience counted for everything. Yet it keeps attracting young players, some of whom may some day defeat their masters. It takes time, like everything that is worthwhile. And as it is with chess, so it is with EvE: many are called, few are chosen. Sad but true.
Over the years I’ve created a bunch of new characters and yeah, with my previous experience I was basically able to fast track their training for specific careers without wasting time or ISK.
Granted I took advantage of various SP offers (Recruitment, Game Packs, Log-in Rewards, Daily Goals, etc) but I never once used Skill Extractors / Injectors on them… And it still doesn’t bother me that they’re all still behind in SP’s from where I’d like them to be.
Odd how no-one ever mentions the Character Bazaar in this context. I actually see far more cases of ‘Character Transfer’ than I do of 3 day old noobs flying Paladins. As a suspect hunter I always check the history of those I engage, and character transfers come up pretty often.
Check my history in the former forum for multi-thousand word diatribes against the Character Bazaar. I still bring it up when the OP topic touches on it. This one doesn’t.
Selling characters was the beginning of the end for this game.
It’s not so much about the quantity of SP that matters as in what skills those SP are focused in relation to what one does in Eve.
If you must know, it’s close to 150m from almost 12 yrs of training (with some down times) with accelerators, skills, and SP pulled from several of my alt’s “unnecessary” SPs. I have never bought and injected SP that I didn’t train myself on my main or alts. It’s not very cost effective when you get over 50m.
My main is combat focused and can fly any combat ship, including caps (except titans, never cared to fly one), fit anything. Etc. However, I have zero indy skills on my main.
I knew early on what I wanted to do in Eve and set a focused training regimine to reach those goals. Now, I just train random skill to keep the queue going.
It’s about where those SP are and how you best utilize them that matters most IMHO.
My first character, despite now having 36m SP, wasted a lot of them on abandoned paths and ships I never flew. This char has 13m SP and they are extremely focused, to the extent that I’m making leaps and bounds with fittings I never imagined before. It’s not just the SP themselves but a better grasp of just exactly what can be flown and fitted. And the latter takes time…but that’s exactly why this char is ‘progressing’ much faster than any prior one…as I rectify 3 years of mistakes and apply knowledge gained in that time.
Interesting it would be so low. I figured it would have been around 100m or so… but then there are a lot of support alts that don’t require high SP to be functional.
Before injectors, I believe a player could train roughly 1-1.5m SP per month. Assuming that were constantly training and using implants, one could estimate by the age of the char how many SP max they could have. Now, it’s just wonky and a 2-day old can have millions of SP.
Realistically.…9 days of SP in an injector is about 1bn ISK. To gain an entire year’s worth you’d need about 40bn worth. Which is somewhere around £300 !
Which always leaves me somewhat bemused, as we always seem to have the same group of people arguing that Eve is too expensive simultaneously arguing that loads of people can afford these sort of amounts.
Personally I am loath to spend any money at all on injectors. Thus I am currently waiting another 9 days for some level V autocannons skill as I just don’t think it is worth spending 1bn to skip those 9 days even though I have more than enough ISK for it.
How much experience do you need to target the ship your FC is telling you to target? To buy and fit the ship you are told what to buy and how to fit it? To be one of a dozen or more in a blob not even knowing where your are heading because you only fleet warp?
The experience excuse is dead, Jim. You have enough experience in three days to do 90% of the PVP in the game.
